Officials bicker over delayed plan for school

Council’s Ryfa blames issues with engineering

The controversy between the town of Griffith and Griffith Public Schools over a proposed addition to Elsie Wadsworth School sparked a public airing of grievances at Tuesday’s Griffith Town Council meeting.

As the meeting was about to end, Town Council President Rick Ryfa, R-3rd, said he wanted to address an “online news story” that day about the dispute, slamming GPS officials over what he believed was their misrepresentation of the issues involved in the site plan approval of the project currently under consideration by the Griffith Plan Commission. Ryfa said it was “unfair” for the schools to criticize any of the town boards or representatives involved in reviewing plans, and that town officials had been operating with professionalism and transparency.

Meanwhile, GPS officials have asserted that the town has unnecessarily delayed the project and has not provided information to their engineers and project managers in a timely manner throughout the process, which began in March.

The Wadsworth addition features a two-story, 12-classroom addition, primarily dedicated to kindergarten and special needs students, to be built on the west side of the school, located at 600 N. Jay Ave.

GPS Superintendent Leah Dumezich said delays in approving the site plan — including a petition before the Griffith Board of Zoning Appeals requesting a variance on the number of required parking spaces associated with the addition — have blown their construction window. She had hoped to break ground in October and complete the addition before the start of the 2023-24 school year in August.

Delays caused by site plan revisions have doubled GPS’ engineering costs to approximately $80,000, Dumezich said. She believes the project could now

potentially cost $1 million more to complete.

Ryfa emphasized deep deficiencies in GPS’ engineering plans.

“How about you have your engineers do their work?” Ryfa shot at Dumezich and members of the Griffith School Board present. “We don’t do engineering for people.”

Councilman Larry Ballah, R-2nd, chairman of the Griffith Plan Commission, said the commission still has concerns over plans for a retention pond on the site. He also noted traffic congestion on Jay during school pickup and drop-off times, meeting Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and adherence to various town ordinance obligations.

“(The engineers) correct some things, but that causes harm to other areas,” Ballah said. “When they reconfigured the retention pond they had a water pipe flowing uphill.”

Ballah acknowledged that the back-and-forth between the town’s and GPS’ engineers was unfortunately delaying the process but wished all matters could be resolved soon.

“We’re hoping to grant approval, but we have to have plans that work,” he said. “We can’t grant approval carte blanche.”

Dumezich told the council that GPS was doing its best to keep up with the redlining of their project plans.

“I think it’s unprofessional for us to get comments 30 minutes before a meeting and expect us to address it right then,” she said.

Addressing traffic concerns

Griffith Police Chief Greg Mance spoke up, explaining that the Wadsworth addition was an opportunity to address long-standing traffic issues near the school.

“We’re doing the best we can to alleviate traffic, but I can’t make it perfect,” Dumezich said, noting that traffic is backed up on Jay for about nine minutes while parents are picking up or dropping off their kids.

Ryfa insisted that the town is not trying to hold up the project.

“I’ve spent 14 years on the Plan Commission and it’s not unusual for something to go this long,” he said.

Ryfa added that he did not personally think that the 215 parking spaces required under town ordinance were needed. At its October meeting, the BZA tabled GPS’ request for a variance pertaining to the number of required spaces on the grounds its members had not received information with enough time to review and act on it that night.

GPS originally submitted plans for 81 more spaces, for a total of 159, 56 less than what’s required by town ordinance. Currently, there are 78 spaces at Wadsworth, 47 of which are occupied on a normal school day, according to Dumezich. She noted that the Wadsworth addition will not increase the number of students and staff, but that it would be built with extra classrooms to accommodate future growth.

A possible thaw in relations

Griffith School Board President Emily Connor has been vocal in her criticism of how town officials have worked with GPS on the project. However, she saw the debate at the Town Council meeting as perhaps a sign things were moving forward.

“I’m hopeful that they want to work with us,” she said. “They gave us more insight tonight than at any other meeting thus far. It’s sad to me we had to get to this point. I’d rather we had been working together from the start. I’m grateful for the feedback we got tonight that we wanted all along.”

Dumezich told the Post-Tribune on Wednesday afternoon that GPS will go back before the Plan Commission and BZA in December seeking site plan and variance approval, respectively. She added that Ryfa called her Wednesday morning to express his desire for the town and the schools to “move forward in a positive manner.”